Category Archives: odd facts

odd facts

Bureau of Odd Facts

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No, not a barrel of old farts, but time once more for a journey through the odd facts that strike me over the head and leave me going huh?

First up is the factoid that the suicide rate in the United States rises ~17% for every 500 meters above sea level. So those of us who live close to a mile above sea level have a suicide rate 55% higher than those living at sea level. Having lived at both altitudes, I have no clue as to why there is such a difference. Really piques my curiosity. Anyone have any idea why? Gives a whole new meaning to hang’em high.

Next up is the odd conjunction of two factoids to make one oddity.

Factoid 1 – 10% of all convicted murderers in the United States are women.
Factoid 2 – 1% of all executions for murder in the United States since 1977 have been women.

Leading to the oddity that women murderers are disproportionately less likely to be executed. Why? Inquiring minds want to know. Is it a sympathy or sex thing?

What lesson are we to learn from these facts? The only morals I can come up with are 1) live near sea level and 2) make sure your sex change operation is complete if you are of the male persuasion and are contemplating murder.

What odd facts have made you go ?huh? of recent times?

dog Molly park, odd facts, weather

Oddities of an evening

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It’s cold and windy and raining outside and here I am inside with a soaked dog. There is nothing like having a soaked long-haired dog like Molly wanting to lay her dripping muzzle in your lap. What more could a man ask for?

(Tagged art courtesy of Banksy.)
Aside from the damp dog and weather, all is copacetic. {*grin*}
Fitting with the mood of the evening, I present five odd facts for your edification:
  • The symbol above the 3 key (#) is an octothrope. Contrary to all the masses who incorrectly call it the pound sign or number sign.
  • The eye of an ostrich is bigger than its brain.
  • A pregnant goldfish is called a twit. Thus all of you who post on a certain service featuring a blue bird logo and 140 character limits are abusing pregnant goldfish.
  • Dueling is legal in Paraguay as long as both parties are registered blood donors.
  • A quarter has 119 groves around its edge.
So what strikes you as odd today?
odd facts, quiz, weather

Pears and Goats

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Today was one of those days where things started strange and went pear shaped from there. It began with a voice mail box full of full moon (you know, lunatic type) messages, including two from people that wanted to adopt cats but then left no number for me to contact them. Then the fiber optic interface box at the demarc was scheduled to be replaced, but the new box hadn’t been programmed quite right. Browsing to a new page hung up the phone and picking up the phone led to strange internet behavior. It took about an hour for the technician to get all correctly setup, so there went the lunch hour.

Molly and I were finally able to head out on our walk a little after 6pm and it was glorious. Warm, slight breeze, late afternoon sun: what could be better. An hour later and the clouds were rolling in and by the time we finished our 5 miles and returned to the house it was sprinkling. It gave the air that glorious ionic touch that smells so good during and after a rain. Before I could even get supper fixed, the rain started falling and the lightning and thunder sat on the horizon, giving a sight and sound extravaganza. Told you I shouldn’t have worked on the lawn sprinklers! Of course Molly didn’t care for the booming and kept her head in my lap as I ate supper. Poor doggy.

I’ll close with this weird fact I was reminded of today: unlike most creatures, goats have rectangular pupils. (Don’t ask how it came up.)

Human pupils are round. Goats and most other animals with hooves have horizontal slit pupils which are nearly rectangular when dilated. This gives goats vision covering up to 340 degrees, meaning they can see virtually all around without having to move. Contrast that with the less than 180 degrees we poor humans can see around. The real kicker is that animals with rectangular pupils can also see better at night due to having larger pupils that can close tighter during the day and open more at night. Makes me think we got shorted a bit in the grand eye design competition.

Bonus question: what well known invertebrate also has rectangular pupils? No Google!

odd facts, sunday

Odd Facts of the Day

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First, the NWS got it partially right. We had a few inches of really wet flock snow overnight. But, it warmed up to the 40s during the day so about 80% of the stuff melted, leaving wet and mud to run rampant. Now this evening, the temperatures are already in the low 20s, so I expect the morning to be an icy slipping and sliding affair. On to more interesting fodder.

Here are three trivial questions featuring the odd facts of the day. They were brought to my (rather odd) mind by the plethora of factoids presented by the announcers at tonight’s New England Patriots versus Indianapolis Colts football game. Do you know the answers?

  • NERF (as in Nerf Ball fame) is an acronym for what?
  • The very first American 911 system call was made on February 16, 1968. Who made the call and who answered the call?
  • An average person typing an average text corpus in English uses one hand more than other, which hand is used more? For extra credit, what is the percentage of characters typed by each hand? (You can assume a standard typewriter layout – no Dvorák or other special keyboard.)

(Answers are in the first comment so you can check yourself. But be honest and no fair Googling!{*grin*})